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Civil Society Assessmentof the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan(MTPDP)2004-2010
May 2010
Summary
Civil Society Assessment of the 2004-2010Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP)SummaryCopyright © 2010 CODE-NGO
Some rights reserved.
The Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) encourages the use, translation, adaptation and copying of this material for noncommercial use, with appropriate credit given to CODE-NGO.
ISBN: 978-971-93700-7-9
Printed and bound in Manila, Philippines
Published by
Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO)
69 Esteban Abada Street, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, 1108Tel. / Fax No.: (02) 9202595 or (02) 4356616Email: [email protected]: www.code-ngo.org
Conveners of the Civil Society Assessment of the 2004-2010 MTPDP:Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM), Asia Pacific Projects (APP), Association of Foundations (AF), Ateneo School of Government (ASoG), Caucus of Development NGO Networks, (CODE-NGO), Civil Society Resource Institute (CSRI), Coalition for a Citizens’ Constitution (C4CC), Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA), Foundation for Philippine Environment (FPE), Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute (GZO-PI), Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services, Inc. (IDEALS), Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas (KASAPI), Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE), National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO), National Council of Social Development (NCSD), National Institute for Policy Studies (NIPS), NGOs for Fisheries Reform (NFR), Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network, Inc (AR Now!), Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation for National Development (PARFUND), Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc (PLCPD), Philippine Partnership for Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA), Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN), Trade Advocacy Group (TAG), Urban Poor Alliance (UP ALL)
Advisers of the Civil Society Assessment of the 2004-2010 MTPDP:Prof. Leonor M. Briones Dr. Cielito Habito Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ Mr. Alberto Lim Atty. Christian S. Monsod Dr. Mary Racelis
Production TeamEditor: Margarita A. Lopa-Perez and Sixto Donato C. MacasaetSupport Staff: Patrick Lim and Sandino SolimanDesign and Lay-out: Ignacio Chiong Jr.
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INTRODUCTIONThe Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2004-2010 is the basic planning document of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. In the foreword of the Updated MTPDP for 2004-2010 approved in late 2009, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) wrote “This Plan translated into explicit actions the 10-point agenda that I intended as my development legacy to my countrymen”. The MTPDP has 25 chapters and is divided into five parts – (a) Economic Growth and Job Creation, (b) Energy, (c) Social Justice and Basic Needs, (d) Education and Youth Opportunity, and (e) Anti-Corruption and Good Governance.
In April 2009, various civil society organizations (CSOs) and networks started this assessment of the MTPDP, with these objectives:
a) assess the government’s performance viz. its commitments/targets in the 2004-10 MTPDP;b) examine the appropriateness and responsiveness of the MTPDP framework and targets to the development agenda of the
basic sectors and of CSOs;c) build consensus among the convenors/advisers and other CSOs on key policy recommendations for the MTPDP for 2010-
16; and d) advocate for these recommendations viz. national candidates in the 2010 elections and the new president/cabinet starting
July 2010.
The MTPDP Assessment convenors included 27 CSOs and networks, including development NGOs, peasant, indigenous peoples and urban poor organizations, and coalitions. (See Box 1 for the list of convenors.)
Box 1: List of Convenors of the CSO Assessment of the 2004-2010 MTPDP
CSO Assessment of the 2004-2010 MTPDP: Summary
1) Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM)2) Asia-Pacific Projects, Inc3) Association of Foundations (AF)4) Ateneo School of Government (ASOG)5) Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO)6) Civil Society Resource Institute (CSRI)7) Coalition for a Citizens’ Constitution (C4CC)8) Foundation for Media Alternatives (FMA)9) Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE)10) Gaston Z. Ortigas Peace Institute (GZO-PI)11) Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through
Alternative Legal Services, Inc. (IDEALS)12) Katutubong Samahan ng Pilipinas (KASAPI)13) Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks
(MINCODE) 14) National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATCCO) 15) National Council of Social Development (NCSD)16) National Institute of Policy Studies (NIPS)
17) NGOs for Fisheries Reform (NFR)18) Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka
(PAKISAMA)19) Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies
(PHILSSA)20) People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network (AR
Now!)21) Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation for National
Development (PARFUND)22) Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP)23) Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and
Development (PLCPD)24) Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human
Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA)25) Trade Advocacy Group (TAG)26) Transparency and Accountability Network (TAN)27) Urban Poor Alliance (UP ALL)
Introduction
The convenors also identified and worked with six advisers with various fields of expertise - Prof. Leonor Briones of the University of the Philippines’ National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG) and former National Treasurer, Dr. Cielito Habito, Ateneo de Manila University. Economics Department and former Socio-Economic Planning Secretary, Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, SJ of the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro, and former Executive Director of the South East Asia Rural Social Leadership Institute (SEARSOLIN), Mr. Alberto Lim, Executive Director of the Makati Business Club (MBC), Atty. Christian Monsod, Chairperson of the Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation (PARFUND) and former Chairman of the Commission on Elections, and Dr. Mary Racelis, Department of Socio-Anthropology of the Ateneo de Manila University and former Director of the Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC).
The convenors and advisers identified the assessment themes (see box 2 for the list) and, from April 2009 to February 2010, undertook research and consultations, drafted and refined the thematic assessment reports, conducted sectoral focus group discussions (FGDs) and seven regional FGDs involving CSOs, government agencies and academe (in Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Naga City, Quezon City and Baguio City), held six meetings of the convenors and advisers, including two that focused on the assessment report drafts and one on the draft summary.
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Box 2. List of Assessment Themes
1) Macro-Economy2) Trade3) Agriculture4) Fisheries5) Housing6) Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises7) Tourism8) Information and Communication
Technology
9) Labor10) Health11) Agrarian Reform12) Mining13) Automated Elections14) Peace15) Education16) Anti-Corruption17) Constitutional Reform
The thematic assessments used a common assessment framework. First, the government's performance was measured viz. the targets in the MTPDP (sometimes supplemented by government targets in the president’s annual State of the Nation Address and other official documents). Then, the appropriateness and responsiveness of the MTPDP targets and strategies were evaluated.
The convenors also agreed on three strategic development goals against which, as an over-all assessment, to measure the MTPDP/SONA targets and accomplishments - (a) reducing poverty and inequality, (b) promoting a sustainable economy (both in the environmental and economic sense of sustainability), and (c) ensuring people empowerment and democratization.
Finally, the thematic assessment reports were asked to identify and briefly explain a few key recommendations for the next MTPDP.
This assessment has several important limitations. First, the planned thematic assessment on environment was delayed due to the lack of resources and could not be included here. The organizations involved in this thematic assessment still plan to pursue this in the next months. It must be noted though that there is a thematic assessment report on mining and the assessment framework for all themes includes environmental sustainability.
Second, while we recognize that differences across regions are important, not all the thematic assessments were able to look into this and there is no particular assessment focusing on the historically neglected regions in Mindanao.
Finally, there was no thematic assessment on the fiscal program of the MTPDP. However, for this summary, we have included a look at the accomplishments of the government viz. its fiscal targets based on a paper presented by the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC) to the convenors in July 2009.
SUMMARY OF THE ASSESSMENTThe thematic assessment reports show that while the GMA Administration can point to some accomplishments, more of the MTPDP targets have been missed. Many significant key targets were attained only in macro-economy and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) development – just 2 of the 17 assessment themes. Also, even in macro-economy, a key target – reducing poverty incidence – has not been attained.
The administration performed better in the legislative arena with the passage of significant laws related to MTPDP targets. However, it seems that these were as much due to opposition legislators as the efforts of the administration.
MTPDP AccomplishmentsWhat were the important MTPDP accomplishments in 2004 to 2009?
Executive
In the executive arena, the GMA Administration has these to show -
1) Economic Growth - The Philippines returned to its moderate expansion trend of around 5 percent growth per year. Even with the global financial crisis, the country eked out a 0.9 percent growth in 2009.
MTPDP Accomplishments
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2) Resettlement of the Urban Poor - Dubbed as the government’s “biggest and most successful resettlement program ever”, the Rail Relocation and Resettlement Program has moved 69,752 families (71 percent of target for 2004-10). Thirty four resettlement sites in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces and 84,111 housing units have been developed and constructed to accommodate these families.
3) Aquaculture – The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has been meeting its aquaculture targets, including, as of April 30, 2009, around 56 mariculture parks; of this number 40 have been established and 16 others are set to be launched.
4) MSMEs - From 2004 to April 2009, government financial institutions (GFIs) of the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) Unified Lending Opportunities for National Growth (SULONG) program released Php 165.5 billion in loans to SMEs. The funds released under the program supported 143,105 enterprises. The accomplishment is already around 70 percent of the 2004-10 target.
5) Tourist Receipts - The Department of Tourism (DOT) estimates that as early as 2007, the Philippines had already exceeded the 2010 target for visitor receipts. The figure dropped (from US$ 4.89 billion to 4.4 billion) slightly in 2008, though it still proved to be higher than the 2009 target. Assuming a continuation of the zero-growth scenario, the Philippines will fall just slightly short of its original visitor receipts target for 2010. Nevertheless, all things considered, these are good results.
6) Peace Processes
6.1) Peace processes between the government and the various armed groups [ Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and Rebolusyonaryong Partido ng Manggagawa Mindanao (RPMM) ] have been marked by on and off negotiations and have made uneven progress. With the collapse of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD), the main accomplishments of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP)-MILF talks have been ceasefire and security agreements and related monitoring mechanisms (JCCCH, International Monitoring Team, AHJAG) that have helped lower the levels of violence, and the interim agreement on relief and rehabilitation, that has led to building capacities of the MILF–led Bangsamoro Development Agency for current rehabilitation and development work in conflict areas.
6.2) The GRP-NDF talks had little substantive progress but was finally able to convene the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) of the CARHRIHL (Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law) on April 2004 and open offices of the “Joint Secretariat” in June 2004, even though the NDF Monitoring Committee (NDF MC) and the GRP MC are operating entirely separately.
6.3) A different and perhaps more effective model of peace process has been implemented for the GRP-RPMM , where local barangay level consultations and resulting projects in about 100 barangays are an integral part of the peace negotiations.
7) Health
7.1) Reduce the Cost of Medicines – The MTPDP targeted the reduction of the cost of medicines commonly bought by the poor to half of their 2004 prices and make these available nationwide. The enactment into law of Republic Act (RA) No. 9502 entitled “Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008” in June 2008 and the issuance of EO 821 or the Maximum Drug Retail Price (MDRP) Executive Order, a direct offshoot of RA 9502, slashed the prices of 22 selected drugs by half.
7.2) Botika ng Barangay (BnB) – The BnBs have been shown to increase access to medicines. To date, more than 11,000 BnBs have been created or more than 60% of the target of 1 BnB in every 3 barangays or around 16,600 BnBs.
8) Anti-Corruption
Lifestyle Checks - Since 2004, the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) has resolved 95 lifestyle check cases, 56 of which have already been acted upon by President Arroyo. As of September 2009, there were 98 lifestyle check cases that are in various stages of investigation and adjudication.
9) Election Automation
The Commission on Elections (COMELEC) conducted a pilot-test of the Automated Election System (AES) in the 2008 Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections. Following the reported success of the 2008 ARMM elections, the AES is now being rolled out nationwide for the May 2010 elections.
MTPDP Accomplishments
Even with the crisis, the country eked out a 0.9 percent growth in 2009
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Legislation
A number of important laws related to MTPDP targets were approved by Congress since 2004. These include:
1) Republic Act (RA) No. 9700 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPER), which provides five more years to complete the land acquisition and distribution component of the agrarian reform program, an additional P150 billion of funding and a number of reform provisions in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
2) RA 9501, enacted on May 23, 2008, which further amended RA 6977 or the Magna Carta for Small Enterprises. The law laid down the legal basis for a comprehensive approach to promote, develop, and assist small and medium-sized enterprises in the Philippines. Recognizing the potential of micro-enterprises, RA 9501 also expanded its coverage to include them.
3) RA 9593, also known as the Tourism Act, which was signed into law on May 12, 2009.
4) Three laws that impact on the labor sector and pertain to employment generation and preservation
4.1) Republic Act (RA) No. 9481 – An Act strengthening the workers’ constitutional right to self-organization, amending for the purpose the Labor Code of the Philippines. The Act simplifies the creation, registration, and legal support for various labor organizations – from local chapters , through federations, and national centers;
4.2) RA 9422 – An Act to strengthen the regulatory functions of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), amending for this purpose RA No. 8042 (otherwise known as the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995); and
4.3) RA 9347 – An Act rationalizing the composition and functions of the National Labor Relations Commission, increasing the number of Commissioners so that they also represent geographical areas (i.e., Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao) aside from representatives of the different labor centers and federations.
5) Two laws related to health
5.1) RA 9502 – the “Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008”, approved in June 2008, and
5.2) RA 9711 - the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) Act of 2009, enacted in August 2009, which renames the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) to the FDA and strengthens its regulatory powers, resources and capabilities.
6) RA 9369, passed into law on January 23, 2007, which amended the law (RA 8436) that authorizes the Commission on Elections to use an Automated Election System (AES) for the May 2010 elections.
7) Two laws on peace and human rights
7.1) RA 9745 - The Anti -Torture Act of 2009
7.2) RA 9851 - “Philippine Act on Crimes against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes against Humanity”, an important breakthrough for the Philippines on international criminal, humanitarian and human rights law, and applicable to individual perpetrators, both state and non-state.
MTPDP Accomplishments
10} Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Phone and Internet Access - There were 1.4 million broadband subscribers in 2008 and a reported broadband penetration of 0.56 percent. Generally, phone and internet access rates have gone up as expected from 2000 to 2009. For example, mobile phone subscribers increased from 6.4 million to more than 70 million. Internet use also grew steadily from 1.9 percent of the population to 24 percent.
Globe cell sites increased from 3,736 (2004) to 6,446 (2008) with increased number of mobile subscribers, 12.5 million (2004) to 24.7 million (2008) while Smart has 8,700 cell sites at present and 38.5 million subscribers in its GSM-network as of end-June 2009.
11) Fiscal
Of the three fiscal objectives in the MTPDP, the government attained one - the reduction of the ratio of public sector debt-to-GDP from 136 percent in 2004 to 90 percent. As of the end of the 3rd quarter 2008, public sector debt-to-GDP was already at 68.4 percent.
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8) RA 9485 or the Anti Red Tape Law – June 2, 2007 and ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption in 2006.
Gaps: MTPDP Targets MissedMost of the MTPDP targets related to the 17 assessment themes have not been attained by the GMA Administration.
1) Macro-economy
1.1) The government targeted to reduce poverty incidence to 20 percent or lower by 2010. However, despite the moderate economic growth rates experienced by the Philippines in recent years, poverty incidence increased from 30.0 percent of the population in 2003 to 32.9 percent in 2006 and the number of poor people from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006. The next official poverty data will be for 2009 and is expected to come out after the May 2010 elections. However, with the rice and oil price increases, global financial crisis and the disastrous typhoons (Frank, Ondoy, Pepeng, and Santi) in 2008 and 2009, many believe the poverty incidence would have further increased last year.
1.2) High levels of inequality were recorded for the past 20-25 years. While there was economic growth from 2003 to 2006, the benefits accrued more to the top 40 percent of the population.
2) Trade and Investment
2.1) Investment rate, targeted to increase to 28 percent of GDP by 2010, has instead gone down from 17 percent in 2004 to 14-15 percent in 2005 to 2008.
2.2) Savings-to-GDP is also far below the target of 30 percent, averaging at 18.5 percent in the past five years.
3) Agriculture
One of the main MTPDP targets is to develop 2 million hectares of new land for agribusiness in order to create 2 million jobs. As of the end of 2008, the government reported only 800,000 hectares developed for agri-business1. Data on employment in the agriculture sector from the National Statistics Office (NSO) show that from January 2004 to January 2009, the employment in the agriculture sector grew by only 679,268 jobs.
4) Fisheries
4.1) The MTPDP declares that the national government will complete the delineation of municipal waters. As of March 25, 2009, the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) reported that it has completed mapping and delineating 918 municipalities in 66 coastal provinces. However, only 31 of the local government units (LGUs) have passed the required ordinances stipulating its municipal territorial boundaries.
4.2) Also, only the guideline for municipal water delineation of municipalities without offshore islands (Department Administrative Order or DAO No. 01, series of 2004) has been issued. The guideline on municipal water delineation of 483 municipalities with offshore islands and overlapping waters has not yet been finalized and issued.
Gaps: MTPDP Targets Missed
The benefits accrued more to the top 40 percent of the population.
5) Housing
5.1) Against the original MTPDP targets, the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) and Presidential Proclamations (covering government land to be distributed to the urban poor) did poorly, attaining only 54 percent (52,689 households) and 44 percent (93,233 households) of their targets by June 2009, respectively.
5.2) Certificates of Lot Allotments (CELAs), the legal instrument ensuring land tenure security, was given to only 63,400 beneficiaries or only 25 percent of the total number of families covered by the proclamations issued since 2001.
6) Tourism
Although the tourist receipts target was met, visitor arrival fell short of the MTPDP target, roughly 1.3 million arrivals short of the DOT’s target of 5 million for 2009.
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8) Labor
8.1) The MTPDP target is to create 10 million jobs by 2010. As of January 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a net increase of just 3.5 million jobs from 2004. Thus, despite the Filipino diaspora, unemployment rates remain high by East Asian standards. Indonesia is the only other country whose unemployment equals the Philippines.
8.2) A correlation analysis shows that economic growth has a weak link to employment particularly for the GMA Administration. This however has been equally true for past administrations, calling attention once again to the structural weaknesses of the Philippine economy.
9) Health
9.1) The availability of low cost medicine in government facilities and outlets continues to be a concern. The latest figures available show that in 2006, drugstore sales vastly outweighed hospital sales (89 percent vs. 11 percent), and of the hospital sales, only 10 percent were sold to government hospitals. Also very few importers have shown interest in parallel importation; even the drug importations of the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) are in relatively small quantities that are not enough to make a dent in the drug market.
9.2) Last July 2009, President Macapagal-Arroyo claimed 86 percent nationwide PhilHealth coverage, effectively achieving universal coverage as the government defines it (85 percent), but PhilHealth coverage is most likely overestimated. The 2008 Annual Poverty Indicator Survey showed that only 37 percent of households were headed by PhilHealth members. It can be inferred that the true coverage is probably only 40-45 percent. Also, the support value (the amount that PhilHealth shoulders from the total bill of the patient) remains way below the 70 percent target at 25-40 percent for hospital ward rates.
9.3) The MTPDP target is to achieve and maintain fully immunized children coverage at 95 percent. But according to the 2008 Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey (PNDHS) Preliminary Report, the percentage of immunized children stands at only 78.4 percent for females and 80.5 percent for males. Malaria morbidity rate was also targeted to be reduced by 50 percent from 48 cases per 100,000 population in 2002 to 24 cases by the year 2010, but the National Statistics Coordination Board reports that the current malaria morbidity rate has remained quite high at 41 per 100,000 population.
9.4) Another target was to widen the choice and reach of family planning services and increase the prevalence rate of men and women/couples practicing responsible parenthood using either modern, natural or artificial methods to 60 percent by 2010. This has not been attained, with only 50.7 percent of women practicing responsible parenthood per the 2008 PNDHS.
9.5) The 2006 Family Planning Survey shows that 162 mothers for every 100,000 live births die due to pregnancy and pregnancy-related complications. This reflects a slight improvement compared to 172 maternal deaths in 1998, but is very far from the MDG target of ¾ reduction in the maternal mortality ratio.
10) Education
10.1) The key to change in basic education is not to plug the leaks, but to build a new boat, to come up with long-term solutions. One can deal with shortages every year but a fast-growing population will
Gaps: MTPDP Targets Missed
7) ICT
7.1) Looking at how telecommunications services have expanded in the country from 2004 to the present, the infrastructure targets of the MTPDP may have been met, but only largely through the efforts of the private sector and only in aggregate terms. The private telecommunications sector claims to cover almost the entire archipelago; but the stark realities were recently exposed with the recent COMELEC report that around 30 percent of the provinces, including the poor provinces (e.g., Abra, Benguet, Samar, Leyte, Maguindanao, Tawi-tawi), are still without a reliable cellular phone signal.
7.2) Some draft policies were consulted with the aim of regulating the industry that had - amidst some genuine competition among the top 3 players - seemed to always be criticized on anti-trust and anti-competitive grounds. But rarely did progressive frameworks, such as an envisioned “Significant Market Power” competition policy for telecommunications, become actual policy.
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only mean more spinning of wheels while staying in place. In January 2001, the Arroyo Administration had a nine-year window of opportunity to take a poorly-performing education system and radically restructure it. Sadly, today, we have the same overcrowded structure, the same processes, and the same low education standards but with millions more children to attend to. In summary, an opportunity wasted.
10.2) In terms of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicators (elementary participation rate, cohort survival rate, completion rate and literacy rate), performance indicators for primary education showed a declining trend from 2000 to 2006. In 2007, the Philippine Midterm Progress Report on the MDGs noted that there is a "low probability” that the Philippines will achieve its goal on primary education by 2015.
10.3) In the MTPDP for 2004-2010, indicators on classrooms, teachers, textbooks, and computers show that while the Arroyo administration met some of its targets: number of classrooms to be built per school year; classroom-pupil ratio; teacher-pupil/student ratio; textbook-pupil/student ratio in some subjects; and the provision of computers in high schools, the manner of measuring success (for example, the use of double-shifting as a way of decreasing the number of classrooms needed) has been questioned. Thus, some targets were missed particularly classroom-student ratio.
11) Agrarian Reform
11.1) There are 7 MTPDP/SONA commitments related to agrarian reform. Of these, the government delivered only on the commitments to pass the law extending CARP and to provide development support to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), with the latter being done only at a very limited scale.
11.2) The administration missed its target of distributing 100,000 hectares of private agricultural lands (PALs) per year and failed to complete the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) component of CARP by June 2008. At that time, there was still a balance of 1.1 million has. of PALs to be distributed.
12) Mining
12.1) The MTPDP targeted 18 to 23 large scale mining projects. As of 2008, Environment Secretary Lito Atienza reported that there are only nine mining projects currently operating. Apart from this, eight are in construction and development stage, eight in feasibility and financing stage, and another nine are in advance exploration stage.
12.2) The government targeted US$ 4-6 billion worth of investment in mining, but the estimated worth of investment in mining from 2004 to September 2009 is just US$ 2.1 billion or only 35 percent of the total target investment.
12.3) The MTPDP targeted the generation of 239,000 jobs in indirect and direct employment. From 2004 to 2008, the government reported that the total employment generated is 13,462 or only 5.63 percent of the target.
12.4) The government also expected to collect P 336 billion in excise taxes, fees, and royalties from mining from 2004-2010, but from 2004-2007, the government just collected P 26 billion or an 8 percent accomplishment.
13) Election Modernization
13.1) Following the 2004 SONA announcement, there was no budgetary commitment for election modernization until three years later in 2007. In September 2008, the Comelec requested a supplemental budget of P21 billion for the automation project. It took Congress six months (until March 2009) to approve the budget at half the proposed amount (P11.3 billion). This left the Comelec just a little over one year to implement the automation project from procurement to testing, roll-out, and execution.
13.2) The Special Bids and Award Committee (SBAC) was constituted late. It was created when the Automated Election System design was already being finalized by the Comelec Advisory Council (CAC). The request for proposal (RFP) or call for bids was based on that design. However, as bidding transpired, some requirements in the RFP were found to be impossible, which therefore required revisions of the RFP by the SBAC. The SBAC issued 25 bid bulletins to clarify and/or modify the RFP requirements. This caused the long debates and deliberations between and among the bidders, the SBAC members, and the observers, to resolve issues.
13.3) Further, because of the over-extended opening and evaluation of bids, some parts of the bidding process were rushed, which may have compromised the integrity of the automation project. The post-qualification of TIM-SMARTMATIC was done in haste. There was no investigation conducted to verify the 60-40 percent ownership requirement of the joint venture TIM-SMARTMATIC. Also, the cursory verification done by Comelec on the other qualifications of TIM-SMARTMATIC
1In its Updated MTPDP, the government reported a total of 1,222,983 hectares of agribusiness (including agroforestry) lands developed from 2005 to the 3rd quarter of 2008 (pp. 38-39)
Gaps: MTPDP Targets Missed
… primary education showed a declining trend from 2000 to 2006.
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14.2) While the previously signed peace agreements (GRP-MNLF, GRP-CPLA, GRP-RPMP) have in general led to cessation of hostilities, the non-state parties continue to cite major lack of implementation of these agreements. Some segments or “renegade” factions of these non-state armed groups have been involved in armed attacks, kidnappings, or other criminality. The current ARMM falls short as a mechanism for good or autonomous governance. Instead, patronage, electoral fraud, and continuing underdevelopment (lowest in human development indicators) are manifest. The massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao on November 23, 2009 revealed the worst aspects of this situation
15) Anti-Corruption
15.1) The record of the Ombudsman on lifestyle checks is unclear; and the lifestyle check efforts were dealt a serious blow when the Office of the Ombudsman recently restricted public access to the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) that it has in its possession thru its Memorandum Circular 01 dated June 16, 2009 and entitled, Revised Guidelines Governing Access to SALNs Filed with the Ombudsman.
15.2) The Administration presented in the MTPDP an action plan to enhance the capability of the Ombudsman. It identified legislative measures aimed at providing the Ombudsman with additional funds from forfeited assets in corruption cases and to allow the use of private prosecutors. However, it failed to follow up on this plan, even as the legislature attempted to take up the bills.
15.3) The appointment by President Arroyo of Merceditas Gutierrez as the Ombudsman in 2005 has resulted in loss of confidence and a growing public perception that the Ombudsman is not serious about doing its job. The 2008-2009 Human Development Philippine Report, entitled Institutions, Politics and Human Development, pointed out that despite an initial spike in its conviction rate, the Office of the Ombudsman’s performance has declined because of over-centralization and poor management.
15.4) Also, high profile procurement controversies still abound. The most visible of these was the attempted procurement of a US$ 329 million national broadband network. During the Senate hearing on the NBN-ZTE deal, the Arroyo administration sent a very clear message about its lack of commitment to transparency in the procurement process. It allowed Secretary Romulo Neri, then NEDA Director General, to invoke executive privilege to refuse to answer questions regarding how the President reacted when he told her that then Comelec chairman, Benjamin Abalos, Jr. offered him (Neri) a bribe to approve the project.
16) Constitutional Reforms
16.1) The administration promised Charter Change through a Constitutional Convention (ConCon). Instead, the GMA Administration pushed for a Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) and People’s Initiative, abandoning the ConCon that it earlier promised.
16.2) The declared agenda on political dynasty (defining political dynasties and making the Constitutional prohibition against political dynasties self-executory) was altogether abandoned and was in fact deleted from the Declaration of State Principles and Policies in the proposed revised Constitution of the Constitutional Commission appointed by the President.
Gaps: MTPDP Targets Missed
now presents problems in terms of its capability to deliver. As of February 2010, it had been incurring delays in meeting key deliverables according to contract schedules.
13.4) No law has been passed to strengthen the party system as committed in the MTPDP. Three bills are pending at the House of Representatives. Another three are pending at the Senate.
14) Peace
14.1) The main target of completing the peace agreements (GRP-NDF, GRP-MILF and GRP-RPMM) has not been met and government has failed to build the constituency for peace processes among major stakeholders, including local government officials and legislators, as well as the broader public (as shown in the MOA-AD failure). The armed conflict has led periodically to massive internal displacements, e.g. more than 600,000 persons in 2008.
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17) Fiscal
17.1) The MTPDP targeted a balanced national government budget in six years and planned a balanced budget in 2008 (P1.23 trillion). It was almost able to achieve this ending 2008 with a small deficit of P68 billion. The GMA administration used an aggressive taxation measure, the expanded value added tax which was approved by Congress in 2005, in order to beef-up revenues. It also undertook aggressive privatization measures, including the 20-hectare Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig City (estimated at P15 billion), Philippine Telecommunications Investment Corporation (P25.2 billion), the 20% in Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC)-EDC (P16.6 billion), the remaining stake in PNOC-EDC (P32 to P36 billion), and the shares in San Miguel Corporation (P50 billion) and Manila Electric Co. (P10 billion). However, as a result of its efforts to boost the economy amidst the global financial crisis, the budget deficit again went up in 2009 to P298 billion.
17.2) Relying on privatization is essentially an attempt of the Arroyo government to mask its failure to reach its tax targets. It has had the lowest tax effort since 1988, a mere 11.53 percent of GDP in 2004. Revenue effort was also low that year, pegged at 13.47%. This has since risen to 15.00 percent as projected in 2008, but is nowhere near the revenue effort in 1994 (19.86%). Our neighbors, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, had average revenue efforts from 2001 to 2005 ranging from 17.1% to 22.8%
17.3) The MTPDP target is 1 percent Consolidated Public Sector Deficit to GDP. The program for 2009 was higher at P221.6 billion, equivalent to 2.8 percent of GDP, following the readjusted budget gap of P250 billion for 2009 to accommodate more spending.
17.4) Between debt and social investments, debt servicing remains the top priority. In 2009, education got merely a fourth of debt servicing (P 158.2 billion compared to P 631.4 billion) and health got only 4% (P 27.9 billion). Even if the total proposed spending in 2009 on education, health, agriculture are added, these would still be less than interest payments alone by as much as P 62.8 billion.
17.5) The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reports that as of end-September 2008, the external debt level is pegged at $53.48 billion, $1.58 billion dollars more than in end-2001 when external debt was pegged at $51.9 billion.
Critique of the MTPDPIn addition to the non-attainment of most of the key MTPDP targets, the CSO assessment has found the plan wanting, particularly in its lack of emphasis on asset reforms despite the historical problem of income and resource inequality, its lack of consideration for environmental sustainability and its narrow view of certain concerns, particularly tourism and ICT.
1) Asset reforms were not emphasized.
The plan seems to be blind to a major underlying and long-standing cause of poverty in the country – the marked inequality in income, wealth and access to productive resources such as land and capital.
The targets of the plan for major asset reform programs were set too low to make any significant impact.It set very low yearly targets for land acquisition and distribution (LAD) under CARP at 100,000 hectares of private agricultural lands (PALs) and another 100,000 hectares of public lands when the LAD balance called for at least 200,000 hectares of PALs per year. Thus, President Arroyo’s MTPDP did not reflect from the start in 2004 her pronouncement that her administration will complete the implementation of LAD by 2008.
Also, the housing target of 1,145,668 units barely covers the housing backlog estimated as of the beginning of the planning period (2005) at 1,170,800 units. Both the overall housing target and the socialized housing targets have been set too low compared to the projected housing need which is more than three times the total target. Furthermore, the estimate of the housing backlog also appears unrealistically low.
Furthermore, since the best performing housing program of the government, in terms of numbers, is resettlement, it means that it is the major housing approach being pursued as far as informal settlers are concerned. However, many problems attendant to resettlement, especially the loss of income and livelihood are not being addressed. The programs which have the highest potential for effecting asset/land redistribution, such as the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) and presidential proclamations, did not perform well and were not considered a priority in the past years.
Critique of the MTPDP
The appointment of Merceditas Gutierrez as the Ombudsman in 2005 has resulted in loss of confidence...
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3) Narrow View of Tourism and ICT
The MTPDP’s implied approach to poverty reduction from tourism appears to follow the hubs-and-spokes structure for building the priority tourism destinations. By generating international tourism growth at the main international gateways and urban population centers, the strategy seeks to disperse economic impact down to the secondary destinations that are accessible from the primary hubs. This tends to limit the scope and breadth of tourism’s poverty reduction effect to the priority tourism destinations and their vicinity. The plan for tourism does not integrate the concerns for environmental sustainability and community involvement and empowerment. Forms of tourism such as ecotourism, agritourism and cultural tourism end up being treated by both DOT and the other government agencies as niche activities that are peripheral to their main activities.
The MTPDP has also taken a narrow view of ICT, seeing ICT more as a “sector” or an industry. The more expansive view of ICT as an “enabler” of growth, good governance and social inclusion is eschewed. As a consequence, government's vision of harnessing ICT as a tool for national development is limited to developing the ICT infrastructure through market friendly policies and developing the ICT industry to generate jobs. Government policy is lacking in ensuring the widespread adoption and use of ICT, with a clear development agenda that should necessarily underpin such a strategy.
Over-all Assessment of the MTPDP In general, the thematic assessments would lead us to state that, after 5 years of implementation (2004-2009), the MTPDP has not resulted to (a) reduced inequality and poverty, (b) a sustainable economy and (c) people empowerment and democratization.
Poverty incidence has increased even as economic growth benefited the richer 40% of Filipinos, and the poor still have limited access to productive resources (farm land, fishing waters, etc) and basic social services such as health.
Economic growth has not produced enough jobs and savings and investment rates remain low, which are all fundamental requirements for sustainable economic growth. Bio-diversity and environmental sustainability are damaged by MTPDP strategies such as the promotion of mining and large-scale agri-business.
Also, the transparency of government transactions in various agencies has become more of a problem in the past years, affecting the capability of the people to effectively participate in democratic governance.
Thus, the MTPDP for 2004-2010 must be marked as having failed on these three development goals.
Recommendations for the MTPDP for 2010-16General Framework
The general framework for the next MTPDP should be based on good governance and people empowerment, which would unleash the energies of the people and lead to the proper use of resources for development. Good governance, starting with judicious appointments, would also result in the effective implementation of government policies and programs – for poverty reduction and economic and environmental sustainability.
The next MTPDP should also directly address the problem of poverty and inequality by emphasizing asset reform, employment generation and support for small producers, and by enhancing the access of the poor to health, education, and other basic social services.
Over-all Assessment of the MTPDP/ Recommendations for the MTPDP for 2010-16
The MTPDP also focuses on big agri-business rather than supporting small agricultural producers and fisherfolk, who are more numerous and in need of support. This seems to be based on the desire for high profile projects and the traditional – and questionable – notion that economies of scale can only be attained through large agri-business firms.
2) Unsustainable Development – The plan has also been criticized for its strategies and targets that undermine environmental sustainability.
The emphasis on the revitalization of mining is a misplaced economic policy. This damages bio-diversity and works against environmental protection and conservation. The MTPDP goal of developing 2 million hectares of new land for agribusiness, which has involved chemical intensive agriculture, as well as the focus on aquaculture do not take into account their environmental costs.
The Plan also failed to highlight climate change mitigation and adaptation and disaster risk reduction, which have been proven critical with the onslaught of El Nino and destructive typhoons in recent years (Milenyo in 2006, Frank in 2008 and Ondoy, Pepeng and Santi in 2009).
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Reducing poverty and inequality would also help spur economic productivity, broaden the domestic market, and improve the competitiveness of Philippine producers and enterprises.
While establishing good governance and promoting people empowerment, reducing poverty and inequality, and enhancing the competitiveness of our producers, the MTPDP should also ensure environmental sustainability, especially in this age of climate change.
The new MTPDP for 2010-2016 should be mindful that we have committed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. Thus, the plan should also focus on the 8 MDGs – eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development.
1) Establish Good Governance and Promote People Empowerment
Good governance has been shown to be crucial in maximizing public resources for development and poverty reduction, and the delivery of social services. It is also important for the country to improve its competitiveness and attract domestic and foreign investments. In the World Trade Indicators Survey 2009, the Philippines performed badly in trade outcomes (rank 157 out of 161 countries) and institutional environment (rank 140 out of 181 countries). This showed that upholding the rule of law, ensuring the credibility of contract agreements, reducing red tape, and most of all reigning in corruption are all important measures that must be undertaken to boost the country’s competitiveness.
The MTPDP must promote transparency, accountability and people’s participation at all levels of government, starting with the president, the cabinet members and other top government officials.
The MTPDP should also promote subsidiarity in government, which means that decisions should be made at the lowest level possible, closest to the situation. In this way, government programs can be made more appropriate to the local conditions and can be more responsive.
The key actions related to ensuring good governance, subsidiarity and people empowerment would include:
1.1) Creating a structure similar to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to recommend appointments to constitutional bodies and sub-cabinet positions in government financial institutions (GFIs) and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) as well as other critical agencies,
1.2) Enhancing freedom of information (FOI) by fast-tracking the approval of the FOI bill or, if the FOI bill is ratified by the House of Representatives on May 31, 2010 and is enacted before July 2010, by vigorously implementing its provisions,
1.3) Strengthening the Office of the Ombudsman by, among others, appointing a credible, competent and independent Ombudsman to lead a genuine and vigorous fight against corruption,
1.4) Strengthening the lifestyle checks and other monitoring mechanisms on government officials and the prosecution of erring government officials,
1.5) Recognizing the role of and respecting the autonomy of the NGO/PO sectors in government bodies such as the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) and the local development councils, including having at least 40 percent women representation as provided by law, and strengthening these bodies as venues for meaningful people’s participation in governance,
1.6) Reforming institutions that coordinate poverty policy and implement anti poverty programs to enhance coordination, improve efficiency and monitoring, and reduce corruption by
• renewing thememorandumofagreementbetween theNAPCandNEDA toclarify thecoordination rolesofeachagency; the new poverty strategy and plan of action should incorporate the specific roles of agencies and key stakeholders at various levels of intervention,
• accessingmoreNGOsandcivilsocietysectorstomonitorthedeliveryofpovertyprogramsandsocialservices,
1.7) Enhancing local government resources and capacity for fighting poverty including improvements in national agency–local government coordination. This would include (i) establishing an incentive system on allocations to better motivate LGUs in the fight against poverty, (ii) promoting inter-LGU cooperation in implementing antipoverty programs and projects including reforms in health, education, and population management, (iii) continuing advocacy for more democratic and people-centered processes at the local levels, (iv) reviewing the 14 core poverty indicators, reviewing
Good governance is crucial in maximizing public resources...
Recommendations for the MTPDP for 2010-16
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2.1) Future MTPDP housing targets should aim to cover at least 70 percent of the housing need (or double the existing targets). Also, the urban development framework must proceed from the principle that the poor are the work force of cities and have the right to remain in or near the cities. The CMP lending policies must be reviewed and reformed to make them more effective. The unreleased CISFA funds of P 12 billion must be released and fully utilized within 3 years by urging Congress to appropriate P 4 billion per year from 2011 to 2013. The distribution of CELAs in the proclaimed sites must be expedited and new presidential land proclamations for the government-owned lands recommended by HUDCC must be issued. A CISFA 2 needs to be enacted to ensure funds for socialized housing.
2.2) The CARPER law, with its reforms, needs to be fully implemented and provided with an adequate budget, to ensure the completion of the land acquisition and distribution of the remaining 1 million hectares of private agricultural lands and the provision of appropriate support for the agrarian reform beneficiaries.
2.3) The delineation of municipal waters should be completed and the national government should provide technical and logistical support to LGUs in securing assets for municipal fisherfolk.
2.4) A fisherfolk settlement program based on Section 108 of Republic Act 8550 or the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 should be implemented.
2.5) The processing of Certificates of Ancestral Domain Title (CADTs) and Land Title (CALTs) needs to be fast-tracked.
2.6) Small farmers/ fishers/ rural women and MSMEs need to be effectively supported.
2.7) The promotion of and support for job and livelihood generation thru labor-intensive government projects and other measures must be ensured.
2.8) The dignity of labor must always be stressed; they may be inputs to production and there will always be pressure to cut production costs, but they are also people who work in order to live. Attention must be given to the growing practice of contractualization, which minimizes costs to employers as workers are not regularized. Non-regularization also allows employers to avoid even paying the minimum wage applicable in their areas of operation. While the intention of the exemptions to minimum wage legislation was to help start-up businesses, particularly MSMEs, these are open to abuse.
2.9) Develop a comprehensive framework for the strategic use of ICT for development. This includes: (a) ICT and Economic Growth, (b) E-Government, (c) ICT in Education, (d) Digital inclusion, (e) Content creation, and (f ) Sustainable ICT use.
3) Enhance Access to Basic Health and Education Services
3.1) Health
Establish a Universal Health Care system to uphold the rights of all people to quality health care. Expand PhilHealth coverage to include all Filipinos. This system will ensure that every Filipino, when he or she gets sick, has access to needed health care, with minimal or no copayment. It will be government led as reflected in health financing and regulation
Recommendations for the MTPDP for 2010-16
available local poverty indicators, and simplifying local data collection systems, and (v) making provinces focal points for coordinating poverty-related programs and projects for local implementation,
1.8) Strengthening government decentralization, including regional governance. This means that, among others, national government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture should work through and pass budgets to the local governments. The delivery of housing services should also be decentralized by strengthening the role and capacities of local governments in social housing provision. The Department of Tourism and other national government agencies should also provide increased support for LGU and community-based tourism destination development initiatives.
2) Prioritize Asset Reform Programs, Employment Generation, Social Protection and Support for Small Producers
The next MTPDP, recognizing the vital need to address inequality in our society in order to successfully fight against poverty and lay the foundation for sustainable economic growth and development, should stress asset reform, job generation, and support for small producers while providing effective social protection especially for the poorest.
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based on health needs rather than market forces. The system will be characterized by integration rather than fragmentation with true people’s participation in the definition and management of priority health services. Universal Health Care may start with a defined set of health benefits with no or minimal copayments that are gradually expanded as the Health Benefit Fund increases.
The next MTPDP must also ensure the effective implementation of the Cheaper and Quality Medications Law, the Maximum Drug Retail Price Executive Order, the Food and Drug Authority Law and the Generics Act of 1988. The next government must even go beyond this to ensure affordable and quality medicines by, among others, increasing and sustaining awareness and support for the use of generic medications not only among consumers but also among physicians, nurses, pharmacists and health professionals as well.
There should be increased advocacy for and information/education/communication activities targeted at mothers to encourage them to get prenatal, natal and postnatal care and available, accessible and competent health professionals who could attend to the prenatal, natal and postnatal needs of mothers nationwide and institutions/mechanisms for the referral of women with complicated pregnancies and for those with complications arising during and after pregnancy should be ensured.
3.2) Education
The next MTPDP should target that by School Year (SY) 2015-16, every child passing pre-school must be a reader by Grade 1. To support this, the Department of Education must build a library infrastructure in all school districts (if not in all schools), procure reading books from the Philippine publishing industry to support local authors, and train elementary teachers on how to teach reading.
A strong science and math curriculum that starts as early as Grade 1 with instructional materials and properly trained teachers must also be put in place by SY 2012-13. To build a culture for science and math in our schools, the science/math clubs and elementary, high school science/math fairs must be revived, expanded and strengthened.
By SY 2015-16, two years must be added to the basic education cycle to catch up with the rest of the world. Total investment over the next six years (up through Budget Year 2017) will be close to P100.0 Billion or P20.0 Billion a year for 5 years to build the additional schools and classrooms, hire more teachers, procure more textbooks, supplies and equipment, and provide more maintenance and other operating expenses for the two additional years.
Also by SY 2015-16, a universal pre-school sub-system should be set up in all public and private schools nationwide. The required investment for additional infrastructure, new teachers and workbooks is in the vicinity of P41.4 Billion. If done incrementally over the next four years, this will cost from P9.6 to 11.1 Billion a year.
4) Improve the competitiveness of local producers and enterprises for both the domestic and the export markets
The global financial crisis showed that we need to promote a vibrant domestic economy even as we strive to widen our export market. This will ensure sustainable jobs and businesses for Filipino industries and workers. Given our natural resources and labor force, we especially need to focus on developing agricultural/fishery production, agri/fishery processing industries and their domestic and export markets.
We also need to promote sustainable and culturally-sensitive forms of tourism as alternative/supplementary livelihood and heritage conservation strategy in protected areas, ancestral lands, agricultural and fishing communities.
Enhancing our competitiveness would include improving the infrastructure for transportation (land, water and air) and communication and strengthening our human resource development/ skills training systems. Infrastructure deficiency remains a top impediment to business environment and investment climate. High-quality infrastructure supports businesses well and reduces transaction costs, and when transaction costs are low, location becomes a less crucial factor in investment decisions. Moreover, MSMEs stand to benefit more when it comes to good infrastructure as they are unable to self-provide enabling infrastructure unlike larger companies. Good road networks, efficient power and water provision, and communication and technology channels, and reducing other logistics bottlenecks improve the country’s investment climate. Enhanced investment programming and prioritization and political coordination can facilitate the process of improving public infrastructure.
Recommendations for the MTPDP for 2010-16
The next MTPDP… should stress asset reform, job generation, support for small producers and effective social protection...
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The MTPDP should also make climate change mitigation/adaptation (CCMA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) an integral component. Climate change impacts, among them destructive natural calamities that result in the loss of lives and property, are bound to worsen in the coming years (especially with no substantial deal on carbon emission reduction targets reached in the UN Climate Change Conference at Copenhagen).
Community and LGU plans for CCMA and DRR should be prepared and supported by the national government. An important action for government is to provide funds for reforestation projects and community-based adaptation and DRR projects, which would also create alternative jobs and livelihood opportunities for the poor.
6) Continue the integration of a peace and development framework
The Philippine Human Development Report of 2005, focusing on Peace, Human Security and Development tracked economic losses of P5 billion to 10 billion annually from 1975 to 2002 resulting just from the Mindanao conflict. The report also showed how socio-economic investments and a human development approach helped reduce the probability of armed conflict.
The next MTPDP should also set the goals and strategies for ending human insecurity, particularly the ideology based armed conflicts, keeping in mind current lessons such as the need for cohesive government response, for constituency building, and for related governance reforms.
7) Maintain fiscal discipline and reduce the debt service burden
Finally, the recommendations above indicate that, especially in this time of crises, the government should allocate more resources to building our socio-economic infrastructure. This should be undertaken while keeping within sound fiscal limits. Ensuring good governance will plug important resource leakages, ensuring higher tax collections and more effective use of government funds. In addition, the government would need to reduce the debt service burden by, among others:
a) ensuring a Congressional Debt Audit which will identify illegitimate debts and then negotiating for the cancellation of these debts
b) discontinuing the practice of shouldering private sector debts through sovereign guarantees, and
c) putting debt-creating activities such as bilateral loan agreements with export credit agencies under full public scrutiny and participation.
In sum, the next MTPDP should clearly be founded on these development pillars – (a) people empowerment and democratization, (b) poverty reduction and equitable access to resources, social services, opportunities and benefits and (c) economic and environmental sustainability.
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Recommendations for the MTPDP for 2010-16
5) Ensure Environmental Sustainability and Integrate Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction
The development targets and strategies of the next MTPDP should be mindful of the environmental costs of development. It should even prioritize the enhancement of environmental sustainability.
The next MTPDP should promote organic and sustainable agriculture and fishery, and increase investment in research on environmentally and socially appropriate technology.
The current mining revitalization policy should be abandoned and a new national mining policy should be adopted. In finalizing this new policy, several measures must first be put in place. These include: (a) a National Industrialization Plan that will indicate the actual minerals and metal needs of the country, (b) an accurate and realistic inventory of the actual mineral reserves, pin-pointing the specific locations, types and values of the minerals, which can be potentially extracted, (c) a mineral extraction plan that will respond to the actual needs specified in the National Industrialization Plan, while considering the other alternative (and more beneficial) uses of the targeted mineral lands.
CSO Assessment of the 2004-2010 MTPDP: Summary
As this report was going to press, the May 2010 national and local elections were just days away. This much awaited democratic exercise was expected to install a new President and a new Administration by June 30, 2010. This new government is expected to craft, in its first months in office, the new Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2011 to 2016.
The MTPDP is the government’s economic and development blueprint. It sets the over-all goals of the administration and presents strategies and plans for achieving the said goals. While many quarters have noted that the MTPDP is not always followed by many government agencies and by the local government units, it cannot be denied that it still plays an important role in defining the development strategies, programs and projects of the government.
In April 2009, various civil society organizations (CSOs) came together to start a process of assessing the performance of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration in implementing the MTPDP of 2004 to 2010 . These CSOs and CSO networks, which eventually numbered twenty seven, acted as convenors of this CSO Assessment of the 2004-2010 MTPDP.
The convenors agreed on the following objectives of the assessment:
1) assess the government’s performance viz. its commitments/targets in the 2004-2010 MTPDP,
2) examine the appropriateness and responsiveness of the MTPDP framework and targets to the development agenda of the basic sectors and of CSOs,
3) build consensus among the convenors/advisers and other CSOs on key policy recommendations for the MTPDP for 2011-16, and
4) advocate for these recommendations viz. national candidates in the 2010 elections and the new President/ Cabinet starting July 2010.
About the Assessment
The full Assessment Report has likewise been published and may be viewed at and downloaded from www.code-ngo.org.
For any inquiry regarding this assessment report, you may contact:
Caucus of Development NGO Networks(CODE-NGO)69 Esteban Abada St., Loyola Heights, Quezon City
Tel/Fax No: (02) 9202595 or (02) 4356616Email: [email protected]: www.code-ngo.org
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